Abstract
Variable speed limits (VSL) aim at improving safety and traffic fluidity by increasing drivers’ awareness. In the present simulator study, VSL displayed on overhead gantries on a motorway were also displayed on a mobile phone, fixed on the vehicle’s centre console, with distance-based triggers (250 m vs. 500 m from the overhead gantry). Results showed drivers (N = 20) complied with the in-vehicle information, which was congruent with the upcoming gantry. The sooner the in-vehicle VSL, the faster the speed when speed limits increased. Similarly, the sooner the in-vehicle VSL, the slower the speed when speed limits decreased. Later in-vehicle VSL resulted in lower speed homogeneity, which is a safety concern. Speed homogeneity was greater when no in-vehicle VSL were displayed. Finally, the 70 mph VSL were affecting driving behaviour differently. These results suggested that there might be traffic disruption and more erratic longitudinal vehicle control on real roads.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1-22 |
| Number of pages | 22 |
| Journal | Future Transportation |
| Volume | 3 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| Early online date | 26 Dec 2022 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Mar 2023 |
Bibliographical note
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and
conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Funder
This research was funded by the United Kingdom Connected Intelligent Transport Environment (UKCITE) project and Innovate UK agency (Project Reference: 102581)Keywords
- driving behaviour
- speed limit
- in-vehicle information
- human–machine interaction
- mobile phone
- road safety